The Summer Hits Series at the World Trade Center and the Day the Music Died

On a sunny afternoon just over a month ago-August 28--I was frugging my heart out onstage with Mitch Ryder. Mind you, I wasn't actually dancing with him. As the publicist for a weekly outdoor concert series, I was on the side of the stage, by the red plastic chairs set up for concert employees and friends of the band.

I remember that I was feeling a little blue that day, partly for personal reasons and partly because I didn't want the series to end. Over the course of the summer, the shows had featured such topflight vintage rockers as Dave Davies, the Box Tops featuring Alex Chilton, Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone, and former Raiders singer Mark Lindsay. Every Tuesday afternoon, I would go to the venue, get my backstage pass, and, more often than not, drop my purse onto a chair and wear myself out dancing. I know I must have done some work, because the series got lots of press, but it felt like I was just having the time of my life and getting paid for it. So I tried to dance my blues away, working up a sweat as Mitch Ryder wailed "Sock It to Me-Baby!"

When I think about that time now, it seems impossible that I and the more-than-1000 people in the audience could have been having such a fab time. The concert series was called "Summer Hits at the Twin Towers". The stage where my feet hopped was on the Plaza at the World Trade Center, directly between Tower One and Tower Two. The idea that the stage is now matchsticks, the red plastic chairs have melted, and the whole plaza, where people sang along with oldies on their lunch hour, is covered with death...it just doesn't seem real.

During the past few weeks, my mind kept returning to those Tuesday afternoons. While it is impossible to think of the World Trade Center without thinking of September 11, it doesn't seem right to let the terrorists' action blot out memories of happy times. Another important thing about the concerts was that they enabled people from all walks of life to enjoy free music together: not just the suit-and-tie crowd who worked at the World Trade Center, but rock fans from miles around. My friend and fellow Fufkin writer Michael Lynch, recalling a moment at one Summer Hits concert, illustrates this poignantly:

"During the intermission of the Troggs' show, I walked around the seated area, getting a sense of the place. A young man, totally yuppie material, clearly a World Trade Center employee on a lunch break, and his female friend, very yuppette, came up to me.

"'Excuse me,' they said. 'What group is this playing today?'

"'The Troggs,' I replied, to yuppie silence.'You know the old song "Wild Thing?"'

The Troggs post-concert inside One World Trade Center, July 24, 2001. Original singer Reg Presley is at far left and original guitarist Chris Britton is second from right.

Photo by Bruce Alexander.

"They did not, so I tried to give them a little crash course in the Troggs and assure them that they were indeed a hit group in the 1960s..., and mentioned how they had a lot of banned records, quoting some lyrics, which they found funny. They were nice, we had some brief laughs about it and parted like good friends wishing each other well."

"That may sound like an insignificant memory, except for the horrible thought that my new friends may very well now be dead."

My own memories of Summer Hits at the Twin Towers begin with the first show of the series, on June 26: Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone. At that show, as with nearly every one, the audience was heavily stocked with New York City pop fans and musicians. Twig, the drummer from the reunited '60s garage-rockers Richard & The Young Lions, sat in the front row, and Richard X. Heyman (who has collaborated with Noone) stood nearby.

I stood in the audience for Noone's first set, near a couple of senior women (one looked about 60, the other 70). Guess Herman really attracted the mums and dads in his day. (As with most of the concerts, the crowd's average age was about 37.) I showed one of the grannies the writeup I had obtained in the Daily News, noting that the paper had mistakenly called Noone a "Merseybeat" artist. The woman politely informed me that Manchester, where Noone was from, was on the Mersey as well. It was then that I realized that some serious fans turned out for those shows.

Peter Noone did a fantastic concert, taking advantage of the lengthy format-two 45-minute sets-to do not only hits but also album cuts, B-sides, and wacky covers. (I am sorry to say that you have not lived until you have heard him sing a straight-faced rendition of the first verse of "Sweet Home Alabama".) He even did "For Your Love," written by fellow Mancunian Graham Gouldman and recorded by Herman's Hermits before it was popularized by the Yardbirds.

After shows by the Chantels and the Soul Survivors came the July 17 performance by Box Tops featuring Alex Chilton (and three other original members as well). The band had its trademark Memphis groove, and Chilton was, to my mind, in his best voice ever. They did most of their chart records (with the regrettable exception of "Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March"), including the wonderful "Neon Rainbow". The one questionable selection was a cover of "Whiter Shade of Pale". Chilton, who seemed embarrassed at having to sing it, tried to camp it up by doing a strange little Dance of the Seven Veils, using a white handkerchief to represent the shade in question.

The very next week, the Troggs arrived, featuring original singer Reg Presley, original guitarist Chris Britton, and a couple of fine ringers. I can't tell you how wonderful it felt to bounce up and down to the beat of "I Can't Control Myself," "Wild Thing," "Give It to Me," and so many other troglodyte classics, not to mention the less danceable (but no less enjoyable) "From Home" and "With a Girl Like You". Funnily enough, they did the WetWetWet version of "Love Is All Around," with Presley getting the audience to join in on the "ba-bop-a-bop-a"'s at the end. I didn't mind; it's such a beautiful song, and so wonderfully incongruous coming from a singer-songwriter who normally frames his lips around phrases like, "Gonna MAAAAAKE you..."

Michael Lynch, who was on the side of the stage with me bopping to Troggs tunes, reminds me that, after the band finished its second set, Reg Presley sat in one of those red chairs and chatted with us for several minutes. "We covered a whole lot of subjects," Michael says, "but the part I remember best is when Reg and I sang together." (I remember that too; it happened when I mentioned that the Box Tops had performed on that stage the previous week.) "Reg started singing 'The Letter' (as was the case with just about every song that came into the conversation), and I harmonized with him. This is, as far as I can remember, the only duet I have ever done with someone who ever sang lead on a Number One single."

The next week, July 31, brought Dave Davies and his very cool band of power pop all-stars (including Kristian Hoffman and the Jigsaw Seen's Jonathan Lea), performing his Kink Kronikles show. Unlike our usual concerts, it was an hour and a half, with no break. (Remember, this was *free*.) The crowd was packed with diehard Kinks fans, as well as guys with ties flipped over their shoulders, who came running out of their offices when they heard the familiar crunch of "All Day and All of the Night".

Dave Davies onstage at the World Trade Center, July 31, 2001. Dave Lyons at right. Through the opening at the back of the stage, you can see the windows of the Marriott (on the left) and One World Trade Center (on the right).

Photo by Bruce Alexander.

While Davies's set was heavily loaded with Kinks klassics, one stands out in memory: "See My Friends," with its desolate lyrics, "See my friends, playing 'cross the river...She is gone. She is gone and now there's no one left..." What makes the recollection stranger is that Davies introduced it (as he does at all his concerts) with the comment that "this song is about people who are no longer here. They've passed on...to the other side."

On a brighter note, I remember the exhilarating feeling when Davies came back for an encore and went into "Father Christmas". The crowd went crazy. It was such an unexpected thrill to hear that modern-day Yuletide classic in July.

After Dave Davies finished, I was leaning down from the stage to talk to a friend who was standing on the ground, when a man from the audience hobbled towards me. The gent, who looked about 70 and walked with a cane, had one question for me. Actually, it wasn't so much of a question as a reproach:"They didn't do 'Lola'!"

Besides the Mitch Ryder show, the other great concert of the season was Mark Lindsay on August 14. It was the former Raider's first Manhattan show in three years, and it drew lots of fans out of the woodwork. I remember it with particular fondness because many of my musician friends were there, including Michael Lynch, Fufkin's own Gary Pig Gold, Scott Finter (a.k.a. PopsterMan) and Joe Ward (both of whom are on Gold's compilation Unsound, Volume One), Chris Breetveld (of the Breetles), and Dave Rave.

Scott Finter says that Mark Lindsay "sounded surprisingly good and looked surprisingly young," and I agree. Lindsay, who still possesses one of the most recognizable voices in rock and roll, reproduced the sound of his hits with ease. At one point, while the band vamped, he snuck off to the side of the stage and donned a vintage red, white, and electric blue Raiders jacket, complete with epaulets. The crowd went wild. Something about seeing him in his old "Where the Action Is" uniform stirred up deep, treasured memories in them. I could tell that, when they watched him move and heard him sing with so much of the old fire, their memories were validated.

Finter adds, "While all eyes were on Mr. Lindsay and his backing band, I found myself alternating between the show and the always impressive World Trade Center towers." It was the same for just about everyone at every concert. The Twin Towers formed a striking backdrop to the proceedings.

It's odd to think about now, but, when I watched those Summer Hits concerts from my spot on the stage, I often thought about mortality: that of the performers. After all, they were getting on. Believing that each concert might be my last opportunity to see that performer, I set out to enjoy each one to the fullest. Today, such reasoning seems silly, but even so, I am thankful that I took as much as Summer Hits at the Twin Towers had to offer. In the words of one great rocker who died before his time, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

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To get an idea of where the concert stage was in relation to the Twin Towers, look at the following map:

http://www.foxnews.com/images/36149/1_22_wtc_layout.jpg.

The stage was directly between World Trade Center One and World Trade Center Two, in front of the Marriott...Bruce Alexander, who has graciously allowed me to use the photos that accompany this article, has many other photos from the "Summer Hits" concerts. Those with serious inquiries may contact him c/o myself at dawn_eden@fufkin.com...I would like to express my deepest thanks to Ray Wilson and Steve Dima of All Creative Entertainment for hiring me to publicize the "Summer Hits" series.

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